The Personal Choice Party (PCP) was a

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

whose presidential candidate for 2004 qualified for the ballot in the state of

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. The first State Convention of the Personal Choice Party of Utah was held May 22, 2004, at Fairmont Park in

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Salt ...

. The Personal Choice Party dates back to approximately 1997, and was organized by Dr. Ken Larsen, an ex-

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...

from

with a Ph.D. in

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from

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

. Prior to forming the Personal Choice Party, Larsen was known as a political activist and frequent candidate for numerous political offices in Utah under the ballot lines of several minor parties including the Libertarian Party and the Independent American Party. The party dissolved after the 2006 elections, and Larsen returned to the Libertarian Party, which nominated him for Governor of Utah in 2012.

Philosophy

The Personal Choice Party asserted that everyone has free agency and individual rights. PCP expresses the philosophy of "live and let live." and demands that, "as long as I am not hurting anyone else, only I have the right to choose how I spend my time, my wealth, my life, my honor." It could be considered a

libertarian Libertarianism (from ; or from ) is a political philosophy that holds freedom, personal sovereignty, and liberty as primary values. Many libertarians believe that the concept of freedom is in accord with the Non-Aggression Principle, according ...

party. The preamble of the party's constitution – which specifies that it is the personal opinion of the party's founders – states:

Issues

PCP supports drastic reductions in government. Many other positions have been attributed to PCP; however, PCP emphasizes that these positions are those of individual PCP members and not those of the party as a whole.

Principal figures

* Charles Jay, 2004 Presidential nominee, and former candidate for 2004 Libertarian Party Vice President * Marilyn Chambers Taylor, 2004 United States Vice-Presidential nominee * Ken Larsen, Moderator (as opposed to Chairman), Utah Gubernatorial candidate

Other election campaigns

The Personal Choice Party also ran candidates in the Utah 2004 senate elections and two of Utah’s three 2004 house elections. In these races, Republican incumbents were all reelected. PCP candidates Joe Labonte (United States Senate), Richard Soderberg (Utah United States House First District) and Curtis James (Utah United States House Third District) each received 1% of the vote. The Personal Choice Party also ran candidates in some Utah elections in 2006. Its most notable candidate, Roger Ira Price, who ran for the United States Senate in 2006, received 1.6% of the vote. The party also ran candidates in some state legislature races. The most any candidate received was 4% of the vote. Some controversy was caused when it was alleged that some voters were confused by the party's positive name, including its smiley-face logo, which appeared on voting machines which, in Utah, give the option for voters to vote for all candidates in one political party at the same time. The party received 14% of the single-party votes in Salt Lake County, which some believe was caused by this confusion. However, many of these voters apparently voted for other candidates before officially submitting their vote. Party founder Larsen said that there was no confusion, mentioning that in 2004 and 2005 12% of Utah taxpayers agreed to donate $2 to the Personal Choice Party on their tax forms, though the party did not accept the funds.

References

External links

* {{United States political parties 1997 establishments in Utah 2006 disestablishments in the United States Political parties established in 1997 Political parties disestablished in 2006 Defunct political parties in the United States Defunct libertarian parties in the United States